Bru McCoy discusses his time at Texas as waiver optimism grows

In early March, Texas Longhorns wide receiver Bru McCoy traveled to Atlantic City to receive The Maxwell Football Club/adidas National High School Offensive Player of the Year Award, as detailed in a segment aired by the Longhorn Network that revealed some insights into his first few weeks on the Forty Acres.

After arriving in Austin in late January following his transfer from USC, McCoy has acclimated quickly to the Texas strength and conditioning program — he gained 12 pounds during his first month on campus and drew praise from head coach Tom Herman for his efforts in the weight room.

“You should see the kid in the weight room,” Herman said. “He’s grunting and groaning and screaming. He’s not afraid to work.”

In turn, McCoy was effusive when discussing what he’s learned from his new head coach so far.

“Coach Herman is unbelievable at building a competitive mindset for players and making it so you compete not only on the field, but continue to think off the field, ‘I need to learn in everything that I do,’” McCoy said.

The former five-star prospect already sounds like an effective ambassador for the program, a quality that could make him an extremely effective recruiter for the Longhorns as the staff pursues multiple elite 2020 recruits from California.

“To me, it’s really exciting, because talent really drives other talent,” McCoy said. “A lot of people are like, ‘Oh, you want to go somewhere where you’re the big fish in the small pond.’ No, you want to be a big fish surrounded by other big fish. Now I’m somewhere where I feel like I fit in with everyone’s mentality and what they’re trying to accomplish, so I feel like I’m in a really good spot.”

Consider that both an absolute indictment about the state of the USC program and significant praise for what Herman and his staff are building at Texas.

One former Big 12 star who has taken notice? Texas Tech alum Pat Mahomes, now one of the NFL’s most exciting players with the Kansas City Chiefs.

“Y’all got a chance to be really good this year,” Mahomes told McCoy at the award ceremony.

Meanwhile, former Ohio State quarterback Tate Martell received a waiver on Tuesday that will allow him to play immediately at Miami in what could be another positive sign for the odds of McCoy becoming eligible to play this season for Texas.

Martell’s lawyer claimed that Martell’s situation was unique, but the waiver request likely centered around the coaching change at Ohio State. The real reason that Martell left, of course, was the transfer of Justin Fields from Georgia to Ohio State, which significantly harmed Martell’s quest to replace Dwayne Haskins as the starting quarterback for the Buckeyes.

Fields also received a waiver for immediate eligibility as NCAA increasingly approves such requests — since a rule change last April, the governing body approved requests from 51 of 63 players at the FBS level, an Associated Press study found in January.

How long that trend will continue is unclear, as coaches around the country are concerned about allowing what would amount to free agency to go unchecked. As a result, the NCAA is reviewing the transfer guidelines that went into place last year — if McCoy’s waiver is approved, it’s possible that he could be one of the last players to benefit from the relaxed guidelines.